Much of Tuesday was spent languishing in the hotel and
airport waiting for the evening flight that replaced our canceled earlier
flight. Fortunately, we had been able to fit in our morning visit
to the Temple of Heaven Park. Besides
taking in the beautiful wooden temples, we were able to get a private Tai Chi
lesson from a local Tai Chi master, who
looked to be in her 60s. The students
learned that Tai Chi is not as easy as it looks when the "grandma"
slipped into a Kung-Foo-type-split move that put all of them to shame!
Nevertheless, we arrived safely in Xi'An around 9pm. Dinner at the airport consisted of anything
from Skittles, to mysteriously flavored
potato chips, to something disguised as KFC.
Wednesday we woke up bright and early, enjoyed a buffet
breakfast, and headed to the bus for our visit to the Terra Cotta Warriors.
This was definitely a highlight. It is
hard to describe the vastness of this wonder of the world. Roughly 725,000 slaves lived and died to create
row upon row upon row (8,000 + total) of
intricately detailed warriors. Knowing that each warrior was handcrafted from a
live model reminds one that you are looking into the eyes of an actual person
who lived 200 years before Jesus.
Knowing that this unbelievable project was launched by one powerful man,
who was fearful for his soul in the afterlife, gives one pause for thought
during this Holy Week. What peace we are blessed to have because of our Savior.
After lunch and some souvenir shopping we headed back to
Xi'An. On our way back in we stopped at
an art gallery for a calligraphy lesson.
It was so interesting to see the Chinese writing "untangled"
into its 8 basic strokes and to try our hand at writing a few words on our own,
with ink and brush. By that time it was
raining heavily but we still had time for 2 more very soggy stops. First, we stopped off at the Xi'An city wall
which runs about 8 miles long. Then on to the Muslim district, which was
something of a bazaar with shops and food market. That evening after drying out we went to
the Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show. We enjoyed a multi-course dinner, followed by
an elaborate show of traditional music and dance.
Today we are off to Shanghai!
We arrived safely in Shanghai. We will blog tomorrow about our first
exciting day!
Jack LeGrand
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